A bit of jungle...

After spending a few interesting days in Bangkok, our next destination was Khao Yai national park which is the house of several animals and UNESCO world heritage site. During our stay, we slept in a lovely village hostel, which cost only 7 euro per night. Our room was located in a nice garden, having banana and some other tropical trees. First day we visited some caves and watched approximately 2 million of bats leaving their cave to hunt during sunset. Swimming in some natural spring was the last activity of our 1^st day.

We started our 2^nd day by chasing some birds, such as parrots and hornbills. While driving in the park, we came across some monkeys and during our walk in the jungle Raimon had a very close contact with this pretty big scorpion. Gibbons jumping from one to another tree and lizards just walking around was between the other discoveries of the day. The trees in the jungle were probably the tallest of all we have seen until now, which was awesome. Unfortunately no elephants could be seen, beside their giant humps of shit laying around.

Bangkok Dangerous

Second day in Bangkok. We had breakfast on the road when heading for some sightseeing. Dilek got a sandwhich and meanwhile enjoying it, a guy just came up to our table, grabbed her sandwich, broke it into pieces and had half of it!! Not a word spoken :-) (it's him eating our leftovers on picture 1)

After that we went to the pier to get ourselves a day pass,  jumped on the boat that would bring us to some cool spots in bangkok. We visited the Temple of Dawn Wat Arun (picture 2) and Wat Pho (pronounce as poo, picture 4) and walked a bit in Silom area.

Two things to mention more: we got a tuk tuk for a crazy ride across town (picture 3) and ended up in modern Bangkok. We had a typical Thai style dinner in a restaurant on the 17th floor with a stunning view of Bangkok's skyline. I still can feel the green curry burning in my mouth. The view was just the best (picture 5). We took a tuk tuk back with a driver noy being happy with Dilek's bargaining skills. That almost got us killed as he drove like a madmen.

Bangkok's first impression

Boys and girls,  ladies and gentlemen..we arrived in Bangkok! Yesterday morning we arrived at 7.40 am local time in bangkok after a bumpy ride with the airbus 777-300ER from Dubai. We couldn't sleep during the flight so we were pretty tired upon arrival. Got the first train to the city centre, which took about half an hour. After we got out at the last stop, Raimon's stomach started hurting, it obvouisly doesnt like irregular sleeping and eating. In 26 degrees I really needed to eat or drink something or i would die (that's at least how it felt).

When I was getting a bottle of water, one guy started to ask dilek some questions. He was suggesting to take a tuk tuk and basically pay him first. After he found out that we are not stupid, he left without a word when dilek was still talking to him..pretty weird. This would happen a couple of times again, people seem to want to really help you, but in the meantime just want to take disadvantage. Luckily we met this girl who would meet her friend and coincidencely had to go into the same direction as us. Her friend picked her up and the offered to drive us to Khaosan road. We took the chance and ended up in this very busy area.

After we got out of the car, we unfortunately couldnt find the hotel quickly in a burning sun. After half an hour we found Korbua house and they welcomed us with a refreshing drink away from the busy street. Immediately we spotted a huge lizard just on the canal where the hotel is located. We got into our amazing room and after a short sleep we went out for some exploration.

We walked down Khaosan road, had some fish cleaning my feet and had a chilled time in a bar nearby. I really enjoyed a large Singha (630ml) for 120 baht.

It's really like we read about bangkok before: at first we got a bit overwhelmed by the hustle, heat and people who seem to want the best for you, but waking up the day after we are so much enjoying this city!!

A day in Dubai

The one and only day in dubai was a nice one. We started with a trip to the Burj Khalifa and ended up in Dubai Mall. The way from the metro exit to the mall is about 1 km, but completely air conditioned and with lots of horizontal escilators to make the walk as comfortable as possible. It's immediately clear where the money is in this world.

After that we went to see the other highlights..the Palm islands and the Burj El Arab hotel..Its pretty weird to see so much modern buildings, shopping malls and 8 lane motorways in the middle of the desert. Whenever there is no concrete or asfalt it's no grass or mudd you see, but just sand, very strange. There's almost no local person around so all you see is a mixture of Indian, Pakistan, Arabian and a couple of western people seeming to enjoy the existense of Dubai.

We went to the old town and after 2 minutes i was dressed as Arafat while i really resisted. One day in Dubai is enough for us, but for some it is their future. For example the taxi driver we met, with his family in Pakistan that he sends money for every month, or all the workers that build all those amazing buildings and artificial islands. Its so amazing what was created here in the last 60 years and the king, who owns like really everything in Dubai, will probably see no reason to stop to invest in the most crazy things here in Dubai.

Fully prepared and checked in already for destination Dubai

The time has come, we are ready for departure!

If only the plane was ready..we couldnt board on time due to a technical defect on the plane, very cool to hear! After that was fixed, we hoped at least they did, we took of for 6 hours on the greatest and latest plane in the world. It.was a very relax flight, until we arrived close to Dubai airport.

As it was too busy at the airport we couldn't land immediately. It took four (4!!!) circles above the sea before we finally could descent to the runway. Finally we arrived safe and sound on United Arab Emirates ground and after wating over an hour for the passport control we went straight to the hotel.

Itinerary starting on Wednesday 9th!

Just one more week to go before we take off to Asia!
On Wednesday 9th we will leave at 14:40 from Amsterdam with this giant plane the Airbus A380!